Marty Lurie Talks San Francisco Giants Baseball
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Zito Reigns Supreme, Clemens Notches 296, Giants Beat Nemesis


Barry Zito raised his lifetime record against the Texas Rangers to 9-0 Friday night with his fourth career shut out, beating the bumbling Rangers 9-0.

The A’s offense came alive and once they had Rangers starter John Thomson on the ropes, they didn’t let up.

Roger Clemens is on a mission. The Rocket notched victory number 296 against the Twins Friday and could be going for number 300 in Oakland during the Yankee-A’s series May 9, 10, and 11th. Now that would be something to see.

Kevin Brown no longer has a hex over the Giants. Brown no hit the Giants in 97 and beat them regularly over the next four years, but now the righty has given up 28 runs in his last 29 innings against SF after last night’s five inning five run start.

If the Mets win today against Miami (I like that better than Florida) it will be Art Howe’s 1000th win as a major league manager. Art is putting Steve Trachsel on the hill against hard throwing righty AJ Burnett.

More baseball news below.The Cubs win again and today run Mark Prior out against the Pirates who just cannot generate much offense without injured outfielder and number three hitter Brian Giles in the lineup. Matt Clement struck out 10 in seven innings, beating Pittsburgh and tough righty Kris Benson.

Bartolo Colon hung in through nine grueling innings and the ChiSox beat Cleveland 5-3. Ricardo Rodriguez had another good outing for the Tribe in the loss.

Cleveland joins the list of weak hitting, losing teams after dropping to 5-11 on the year. How far has Matt Lawton fallen? The outfielder used to hit the ball for the Twins before moving on to the Mets and now Cleveland, Lawton ended last night’s game with a .145 average. Other than Ellis Burks, Omar Vizquel, and Shane Spencer this team is in trouble at the dish.

Greg Maddux limped through 5.6 innings last night, but the Braves rallied to beat the Phillies 5-4. Smoltzie did his thing for his 6th save of the year ( ERA 0.00). Just imagine life on the Braves without Smoltz, not good.

Nelson Cruz, former Tiger and Astro looks for victory number four today against the Padres who even have trouble scoring runs in Coors Field. The Rockies bats are heating up at home and should put up some runs today.

The Cardinals lose Albert Pujols as a full time player for three weeks and still roll on. Amazing that injuries don’t slow this team down. One thing I would do is question the trainer because the Cards are always facing injuries to key players. St. Louis trainer Barry Weinberg, former trainer with the A’s, should be questioned vigorously about his methods with this team.

Woody Williams is the best seven inning pitcher in the league. Tony La Russa now understands this and gets Williams out before he loses it late in the game. When Williams was with Toronto he was the same pitcher, just nobdy noticed. Getting him from San Diego for Ray Lankford was a steal for the Cards.

Which Ismael Valdes will show up today for Texas? Whichever one it is will need bull pen help and that is good news for the A’s who are glad to be home. Mark Mulder pitched quite well in a losing effort Monday in Seattle and should cruise today in what could be a high scoring game for the A’s because of the clear sunny skies in Oakland.

Jeremy Affeldt goes for the Royals against 1-14 Detroit. One, how long can KC stay up there and two how bad can Detroit be?

Answer: The Royals will win as long as they play this division and two the Tigers may lose 110 games because they just don’t have enough major league talent. I don’t think this is a just a slump for Detroit, their players are either through as big time producers or not ready for the majors. Plus their pitching stinks.

They come into Oakland next week in what could be another ugly series for new Tiger manager Alan Trammell.

Andy Ashby, the malcontent Dodger pitcher, works tonight against SF in LA. The only good news for LA is Damian Moss starts for SF, perhaps the weakest of the Giants starters Moss usually let’s his opponents hang around because of his control problems. Ashby doesn’t have it anymore and the Giants will make his night and his personality more miserable.

Brad Radke wild beyond his norm in his last start got rocked for three homers last night at home by the Yankees. Jason Giambi went 0-5 and is now hitting .190.

Kevin Millar has power in Fenway and is making Jeremy Giambi a permanent bench player. Millar has been a good pick up for the Sox who pulled a move on the Marlins to pick him off the waiver wire this winter. Miami had the gentleman’s agreement which exists among general managers to send Millar to Japan. The Sox jumped in and foiled the deal and burned the Marlins, causing much bad blood between Japan and the US. Boston got their man and hasn’t looked back, Millar is hitting .404 with 5 homers and 16 RBI, not bad for the first baseman.

Toronto’s bull pen fell apart again last night, this time it was washed up Jeff Tam who could only throw 10 strikes in 32 pitches which cost the Blue Jays the game in Boston.

The Marlins stole six bases on Mike Piazza Friday night, plus Piazza had two throwing errors on the steal attempts. Shouldn’t the GM of the Mets go out and get a catcher who can actually play the position. But what to do with Piazza? Mo Vaughn is playing first and Piazza doesn’t have another position. Trade him or Mo to the AL to be a DH, better now than later. It doesn’t matter what the Mets get back as Branch Rickey used to say “Addition by Subtraction”.

Doubleheader in San Juan today weather permitting.

The Reds needed a day off anyway.

See you at the park.

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